LONDON.- For his second solo exhibition at Haunch of Venison London, Thomas Heatherwick has produced a startling twist on conventional furniture design: a functional chair formed from a single profile rotated through 360 degrees. Aptly titled Spun  it transforms the domestic seat into a beautifully rendered spinning top.

The exhibition will include five versions of the Spun chair in copper and stainless steel. The different versions are: mirror polished stainless steel, brushed stainless steel, mirror polished copper, brushed copper and patinated with brushed seat copper. The peripheral edge and tip of the chair has a leather trim to prevent damage to the floor. Each chair is assembled with six spinnings of thick metal, welded together and polished to give a uniform single form. The handmade spun pieces are formed by pressing large sheets of metal against a rotating cast iron form using a large paddle.

The concept of this new design evolved from Heatherwicks love of the traditional manufacturing technique used for making large timpani drums: metal spinning is a deeply established craft skill which is rarely used within the furniture world  more typically used for producing industrial componentry such as cookware, gas cylinders and urns - the process was revised and then used to make a complete piece of metal furniture. The appeal was to create a design using rotational symmetry while asking the simple question  could a functional chair be formed from a single profile rotated through 360 degrees?

Spun displays Heatherwicks flair for challenging rules and teasingly plays with the notion of a static piece of sculpture becoming a playful piece of design. When upright Spun is a gleaming sculptural vessel and it is only when it is lent on its side that the playful possibilities of its form come to light; Spun allows the sitter to swivel in a circular rocking motion, including being able to rotate in a complete circle.

Heatherwick has successfully engaged in the spectrum of architecture, engineering and public art since achieving national and international acclaim. He has conceived a series of diverse projects from buildings, bridges to handbags and furniture, characterized by the belief that good design should be readable rather than impenetrable His body of work defies definition. In completing nearly 200 projects since establishing his studio in the mid-nineties, each new commission merges engineering and design to give his projects a magical transformative feel.

Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Heatherwick (b. 1970) founded the Heatherwick Studio in London in 1994 after graduating from the RCA. Today, the practice operates from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London where a team of architects, designers and makers work on projects ranging from buildings and bridges to products and large scale works of art. The studios work includes La Maison Unique, the flagship store for luxury French brand, in New York Longchamp, multi-award winning East Beach Café, Littlehampton, and bridge, Paddington. Current projects include a monastic building in Sussex and the British Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo in 2010.